Rolling on fairly rough but quite rare stock 17" alloys, the new wagondelivered it's previous owner to the airport this morning and then gotfilled up with gas, which we'll call "taking possession". She swallowedclose enough to 70 litres and 120 nz dollars.

With the previous owner on 90 mile beach (about 90km, but who's counting...):

Put 100km on this today, and nearly rear ended someone on the motorwaywhen they prematurely braked for a blockage and I wasn't paying attentionin the right direction. Only due to someone behind honking did I spin aroundand swerve to avoid them. Ooops. Too tired. Took the GF1 out and shot this:

1) Noticed a coolant leak out of the end of a hose that I had tightened and untwisted the other day. Rubber had just ruptured. Cut bad end off, cleaned tstat housing, filed lip to be smooth, no grooves, cleaned inside of hose end, refitted and tightened clamp in just the right spot - no leaks.

2) Removed the air con belt as it was squeaking constantly, not even in use, just the engage/disengage of the belt onto the pulley and off again. Will replace tomorrow, probably.

3) Vaguely tried to find the exhaust rattle but failed. Shielding present on all of the front of the exhaust. Need a helper to put it in gear, brake on hard, and put some load on the engine to make it buzz and be able to find it.

4) Filled it with gas, 52.26l 382.8km, not being gentle. Car is heavy and slow, so I'll probably take it more easy now that I'm used to it and have had a play.

Didn't clean the wheels or try to remove the roof racks. But I have a bunch of chores prepared for the weekend including various things on this car. Should take it through a water blaster style carwash before I go much further, too. Pretty dusty/grubby on the outside from the road trip it just did from chch to qt to 09.

Roof racks are gone as of last night, but I still need to clean off the glue.

I thought it was weird to see water flow through the engine easily when I did the top hose fix. No tstat, I wondered. Confirmed this morning motorway cruising at 100, temp needle falls down and heater is luke warm.

So, since I got this, I nearly wrote it off, twice. First time my fault, mostly, second time 99% her fault. Driving with your headlights off amongst other cars with them on = invisible. Pulled out into "gap" close behind first car, plenty in front of "second" car if I floored it, did so, eye on the destination, wife screams, I look out the right side and see a stopped headlightless car and brake intending to tell her what I thought, she drives off, I drive off. Sigh.

In brighter better news, I cleaned it and replaced the constantly squealing aircon belt, though now it doesn't turn on, for some reason. Sigh.

Started removing some of the construction adhesive from the roofre ex roof racks. Still gooey. Which is kinda good, and kinda bad.Good that you can manipulate it. Bad that it doesn't peel off cleanly,instead breaking in the middle as you pull gently on it.

WOF man also said to adjust the handbrake cable, so I'll do that tomorrow.

So far I have:

Used turps to clean some of the urethane glue marks off of the roof and gutter trim - driver's side looks OK until you look down into the gutter, passenger side looks better, but needs more work like I did to the other side already.

Replaced both front wiper blades, and one of the load distributors with one from the caravan.

Removed a lot of stickers from the inside and outside of all front/rear/side glass.

Removed some sticky marks from the high stop light cover.

Replaced the rear wiper blade, too.

Obtained a steering rack boot that I probably won't use. The existing one is not ripped, just poorly installed. Clean, dry, grease, reinstall with fresh cable ties, win.

Tomorrow:

More glue removed from roof

Handbrake cable adjusted

Registration pocket replaced, old one cleaned off

Door jams wiped clean of all the road-trip dust

Early mornings and early leaving work this week so I can get the boot sorted, get two WOFs, and pick up my new air compressor :-D

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